Iran executes British-Iranian national, UK condemns 'barbaric' act

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Reuters

4 minute read January 14, 2023 4:33 AM EST Last Updated 2 hours ago

Iran executes British-Iranian national, UK condemns 'barbaric' act

Reuters

Summary

-- Alireza Akbari was a former Iranian deputy defence minister
-- Arrested in 2019, he was accused of spying for Britain
-- UK's Sunak calls it 'a callous and cowardly act'
-- Britain had said Iran must not follow through with sentence

DUBAI/LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Iran has executed a British-Iranian national who once served as its deputy defence minister, its judiciary said on Saturday, defying calls from London for his release after he was handed the death sentence on charges of spying for Britain.

Britain, which had declared the case against Alireza Akbari, 61, as politically motivated and called for his release, condemned the execution. ... Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called it "a callous and cowardly act carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people".

The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency reported the execution early on Saturday, without saying when it had taken place. Late on Friday, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly had said Iran must not follow through with the sentence - a call echoed by Washington.

The execution looks set to pile more pressure on Iran's long strained ties with the West which have deteriorated further since talks to revive its 2015 nuclear deal hit deadlock and as Tehran unleashed a deadly crackdown on protesters last year.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-executes-british-iranian-national-akbari-iranian-report-2023-01-14/

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Akbari was arrested in 2019, but Iran claims he had a part in the Nov 2020 assassination

of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. No wonder they call him a "superspy" - that would be Blofeld-level spying, over a year after they locked him up.

The Iranian government has obviously fitted him up with that assassination to get public opinion on their side.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

2. All those loonies that govern with their glands can kiss my ass.

rant over